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The Mentor's Way
The Mentor's Way is a short story written by . The story revolves around the Ko-Matoran scholar Ihu and Nuju, focusing on their relationship during Nuju's time as his student. Story "No! No! No! This part’s too vague and this whole section is completely wrong!" Those were the initial words of complaint that I remember Nuju uttering in what would be the first of many lessons with me. I wasn't surprised. I had read his many academic evaluations shortly before he had appeared before me. All of them spoke very highly of him; many of the Seers who had taken him under their wing believed he was destined to become a fine scholar. Indeed, he was believed to be one of the brightest and most promising students Ko-Metru had seen in decades, maybe even centuries. However, there was a catch with taking on a student like Nuju - I've found there usually is in these sorts of things. Despite his intellectual prowess, he was said to be... impatient. While firm in his convictions (a promising characteristic in any student), Nuju was said to be particularly stubborn. More than a few teachers had said that he struggled to see things from other perspectives. But then, of course he was struggling. He was still a learning after all, and bright ones like him always had so many hills to die on. From his desk, the young Ko-Matoran glowered at me coldly. I took no offence from his harsh gaze; among us Matoran of Ice, it was all too frequent a response. Nobody likes to be proven wrong, but Nuju's eyes gleamed with something more than frustration. They glowed with disappointment. He held out the tablet he had just finished reading. "This cannot be a useful learning tool, Ihu." I smiled and walked to where he was sitting. An array of stone tablets were scattered messily across the top of his table, each lecturing on a different subject of philosophy and science. Nuju held out his hand expectantly, offering up the tablet which he was clearly displeased with. I took it and examined it closely. “Nuju, you are critiquing a highly-acclaimed document," I began. "This text compiles the notes of some of Ko-Metru's finest scientists. I do not see how their shared thoughts on the Kanoka creation process could be inaccurate, especially since their ideas have been in practice ever since." "The information is hundreds of years old," Nuju grumbled. "In the centuries since, scores of mask makers have proposed new and better techniques to create Kanohi. These techniques are obsolete and outdated." "And what do those mask makers base their progress on?" I asked him. "They will always refer back to this initial data in some way. The technology that created the first Kanoka, regardless of how old it is, laid the foundation for an entire industry in this city." Nuju grumbled for a moment, his eyepiece whizzing back and forth as he re-examined the tablet in much closer detail. I smiled at my new student courteously, despite the icy glare he shot at me. He still had so much to learn. "Why am I studying this anyway?" he demanded, sounding almost defeated. By now, his face had contorted so fiercely and with such frustration that one could be forgiven for believing he was wearing a different mask. "I am not here to fawn at your feet. If I were, then I'd be down in the schools of Onu-Metru. I know when I am right, and I know that Kanoka has no relevance in the study of the future. It certainly has no place in my future." I had expected this much from Nuju. I shot him one of my sterner expressions. "You ask me why this is relevant, why it matters. It matters because Metru Nui's greatest advancements have almost never relied upon stargazing or solving cryptic puzzles." I turned away from him and began to pace across my observatory. Beyond my essential stargazing equipment, the room was spared any of my personal effects. I have, for many years now, been of the belief that a workspace serves equally as a reflection of its occupant's character. For this reason I had made sure my quarters revealed as little as possible. And for this moment in particular, perhaps it was all the better for that. I came to a stop near a massive window that overlooked the spires of Ko-Metru; a glass empire framed by a crystalline skyline. In the distance, I watched the two suns descend beneath the clouds, and drank in the flittering light as it danced across the rooftops. Nuju, naturally, frowned at my silence. "But studying Kanoka does not help us learn about the future." My shoulders heaved with a sigh. “To understand the future, we must understand the decisions that led us here in the first place, and the principles that underlined the discoveries we made along the way. We can never truly dismiss our past. It's the rudder that guides us towards the future. It informs the way we understand it." When I turned to face Nuju again, he had a look of pure, incredulous shock on his face, as if I had just muttered some foul Po-Matoran curse in the Great Temple. "With all due respect, Ihu, the past is something we leave the Onu-Matoran to bumble about. Any Seer worth his work knows that the lessons of the past are what they are because we fashion them into narratives. We reduce them to little more than didactic morality tales. Our future is determined by ever-changing patterns in the present. The past merely tells us what has gone before. It cannot guide us into our future." I frowned. Nuju was bright, and yet so terribly naïve. "Without the past, how would we adapt to the future? Our experiences are built upon the past, and every mistake anyone has ever made affects the way they look to the future. There is just as much importance in what has been as what will be.” "This explains why your peers called you a maverick, sir." I couldn't help but grin at the comment. "They are being very polite." It was true, that the name ‘Ihu’ carried with it as much acclaim as it did derision. For years, I had endured the white noise that comes with being called one of Metru Nui's leading thinkers. It was an inflated reputation to be sure, but I could only blame my skills with prophecies for that. Many times over, I had deciphered Metru Nui's most cryptic prophecies with a standard that had never been matched. In more recent years, however, I had become far more suited to the lectern than the observatory. And I had been called upon to lecture in places well beyond my district – the schools of Ga-Metru, the Archives and even in the most private rooms of the Coliseum. However, a personal philosophy that was all-inclusive of the past, while popular with Onu-Matoran, did not sit well within the elite circles of the Ko-Matoran. I, personally, did not mind their gawping and their gossip. Truth be told, it was all really rather funny. I gave Nuju a friendly smile and pressed on. "I am a maverick only to the stubborn and the narrow-minded, and I am assured you are neither. Now, if I've done my job, you should have plenty to think about. We’re going to have many more lessons like this, so a change in perspective might go a long way in making them all the more enjoyable." Nuju snorted as he raised himself from his desk and left the room. Thank you’s and goodbye’s were to be a luxury, it seemed. He wasn’t my student, not in mind or spirit, but he was still new to the Knowledge Towers. He would need a helping hand through these first few hurdles, especially with Ko-Metru’s finest watching with hungry eyes, eager to see if he would whither or thrive. I would be more than happy to help him, but it would be up to Nuju to accept it and do the most important thing that any Matoran could possibly do. Listen. ---- I was standing in the lobby of my Knowledge Tower - one of the most distinguished of the Towers of Thought. Apart from the mechanical chirping of the nearby Vahki drones, not a single word had been uttered. That said, even if I had wanted to speak, I would have no doubt been escorted off the premise; the nickname "the quiet Metru" was a surprisingly literal one. That said, it was almost a relief to know that the nearby scholars were bound by silence, if only because it refrained them from gossiping amongst themselves. It had been two months since I had become Nuju’s mentor, and needless to say, he had not been responding well to our lessons. My theories appalled him and my heresies outraged him, while my life's work was little more than the scribblings of a jumped-up hack. Nuju had attempted to dethrone me more than once in my own classroom, like many of my colleagues had when I myself was a young Seer. He had not been the first to try and was unlikely to be the last. Many times over, Nuju had presented me hours of work that I had dismissed with the wave of my hand. There were always small oversights, not enough attention to detail, too few compelling arguments. He did not hate the fact that I criticised his work; he hated that I was right. Now, it seemed, it had finally gotten to him. I approached the group of Vahki, keeping a wary eye on the huddled scholars that dotted the corners of the room, their eyes boring holes into the back of my head as I approached. The Vahki squad leader, clearly of the Keerakh variety, split off from the rest of its team and approached me, taking long, calculated strides as it came closer. Beside it stood the relaxed form of Nuju, who was staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes, a placid look decorating his blank face. I sighed as I realised the cause of Nuju's mindset. The Staff of Confusion was always said to be the most merciful of the Vahki stun tools, far more compassionate than the Staff of Erasing. However, I had always found it unnerving to see the aimless drifters borne of Keerakh's staff wandering in the streets. The Vahki commander turned and issued an order encoded in a mechanical whistle to its comrades. Immediately, the other Keerakh turned to the other Ko-Matoran and began shooing them off. I looked up into the empty blue eyes of the commander, who stood firm and motionless. I cleared my throat. "I heard of what Nuju did. I do not condone his actions, but I want your assurance that he has not been harmed." The Keerakh shook its head slowly, its mechanical eyes never flickering off me. A short pause ensued and an almost sinister silence clutched us. All the while, Nuju continued to stare at the ceiling. Though he had not been my most yielding of students, I had never wished him any ill. I cleared my throat again as I realised how long I had been rooted to the spot. "Thank you for your assistance. I will escort Nuju back to my observatory." The Vahki didn't reply. Instead, it broke itself from its motionless stance and made its way to the lobby entrance with the rest of its unit. Within mere seconds, they vanished into the blizzard outside. I frowned for a moment, then turned and herded the confused Nuju through the tower's winding passageways. We strode past several rooms of prophecy, ancient centres of learning and far too many laboratories. Along the way, countless scholars scowled at me disapprovingly, though I paid their judgments no thought. By the time we had returned to my observatory, near the very top of the tower, Nuju was back to his old self again, though he refused to talk until we were within the safety of my room. I seated him down in one of my armchairs before turning on him sternly. In moments like these, it helped this office was soundproof. "What was that?" Nuju shrugged. "A protest.” I fought back the urge to pull a face. “A protest? Screaming down the corridors of the Towers of Thought is not a sign of protest, especially when all you're doing is complaining about me." "But that's exactly what a protest is!" "Not when you're disturbing other scholars in a no-speaking zone! You know as well as I do that the Vahki monitor those buildings around the clock, they'll withhold someone for making even the slightest noise. I'm surprised they were willing to escort you back to this Knowledge Tower. What you did out there was neither effective nor clever, it was downright stupid!" Nuju was silent. I could see the hurt anger in his eyes. "You have a brilliant mind, Nuju, and it will take you very far. But you're doing yourself no favors here! Whatever point you were trying to prove, that sort of behaviour will go a long way in hindering you." Something changed in Nuju's eyes in that moment. It was subtle of course, but the change were there nonetheless. I savoured victory, small may it be. Finally, after so much resistance, I was getting somewhere with him. "I see," he whispered plainly. His gaze then turned to the large telescope that sat outside on my balcony. "Perhaps we should see what secrets the stars hold for us tonight," he said politely. "Not tonight, I think," I replied. My eyes were fixed on the twin suns setting in the distance, their orange lights joining them in the retreat. "You need to rest. Go think about what I've said. The mysteries of the Great Spirit will still be waiting here when we return tomorrow." ---- Things had changed dramatically over the year. From being my most defiant student to my most avid listener, Nuju had become more than just another pupil. He had become my friend, an intellectual peer. Since the incident with the Keerakh, Nuju had begun to mellow out and his stubbornness had been tempered enough for him to concede on at least some grounds. He was still as sharp as ever, and analysed everything that crossed his desk with unrivalled scrutiny, but he no longer did this to prove my folly. Or at least, not intentionally. Unsurprisingly, lessons had become much easier with him here in the Knowledge Towers. He had even been permitted back into the Towers of Thought, despite the incident he had instigated the last time he was there. Word had obviously spread that he had finally begun to cooperate with me. Today, however, I had decided to do something a little bit different. Feeling the need to push aside any lingering disagreements, I had decided to take him with me on an excursion of sorts to Ga-Metru. I myself was familiar with the region; many Ga-Matoran teachers had asked me to lecture here and had more than once offered me a position at their schools. All were very respectable institutions, but they were not suited to me. I could never really wrap my head around those Proto Level examinations. Still, coming to this district was always immensely pleasurable. Unfortunately, however, Nuju was not quite as well traveled as I was, and was immediately thrust out of his comfort zone. I couldn't help but smile. Like many Ko-Matoran, he rarely left the Knowledge Towers he was admitted into, let alone the Metru itself. To see his reaction to the stunning scenery of Ga-Metru was priceless. We began our tour with a trip around the Fountains of Wisdom, followed by a tour of the Great Temple itself. We then went on an expedition along the coastline via a plucky service called Macku’s Canoes. By the late afternoon, Nuju had chiseled up what looked like forty-five pages of notes. This was not surprising. "Next time, I should take you to see the musicians in Le-Metru," I remember saying as we crossed an intricate bridge overlooking the beautiful Protodermis Falls. "Nobody makes quite as good an orchestra as the Le-Matoran. Some of their symphonies are spectacular, provided the choirs aren't singing in Chute-Speak." Nuju grunted in acknowledgement and leaned against the railing, staring out at the orange suns and the rushing waters of the Falls. He had heard me, but he wasn't listening. Instead, he took a moment to soak up the atmosphere of the world before him. There was peace here, a harmony that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the city. Seconds ticked by as the two of us just stood there, watching the waters topple over the cliff tops. "Why did you bring me here?" he asked gently. I did not look at him. "To prove a point,” I replied. Nuju chuckled. "When do you ever do anything that isn't proving a point?” Ignoring his wit for once, I continued. "I wanted to prove to you that there is far more to life than an office in a skyscraper with a telescope in the sky. So many Ko-Matoran look so far forward, they miss everything else." "So should I become an Akilini player instead then?" I chuckled. "No, not at all. But the Great Spirit did not lay out all this beauty before us just so we could lock ourselves inside specialized laboratories and think about whether it'll be beautiful tomorrow. At times, we must simply appreciate what life offers us, rather than observe the world through a keyhole or spyglass." Nuju's eyes glimmered with thought. "I don't think Metru Nui has ever had a Seer quite like you, Ihu." I finally forced myself to meet his gaze. "And it's time you proved me wrong. You no longer need me anymore, your destiny is your own. I have taught you everything I can, and you finally have the only thing I have ever tried to give you." My student seemed puzzled. "And what would that be?" Water rushed over the Falls. "An open mind." ---- "Ihu, you have a visitor waiting for you in your observatory." I turned away from the circle of Seers I had been talking with to face a young messenger. "Please tell him to make an appointment first." Ehyre stiffened none too subtly as he said his next words. “Sir, I believe your visitor is an old student of yours. A Seer from the southern district. Nuju, I believe his name is. He’s already waiting in your office.” I turned back to the messenger, a look of surprise etched upon my mask. It had been four years now since Nuju had left me, and since then he had gone on to enjoy a very successful career of his own. He was scarcely found outside his new observatory, where his restless mind could focus without distraction. "Tell him I'll be right with him," I said. Ehyre nodded solemnly and left without a word. I quickly excused myself from my congregation and hastily made my way through the crystalline corridors of the tower. Arriving at my observatory, I opened the doors to see Nuju standing out on my balcony, gazing up through my telescope. He turned at the sound of my entrance and nodded courteously, the ghost of a smile on the tips of his mouth. I smiled back to him and moved to tap a clenched fist in the customary manner, but was greeted instead with an open palm. We shook hands. "Nuju, my friend! How have you been?" The lens of my former student’s mask zoomed in and out as he looked around the room. "I am very well, Ihu. There have been plenty of new projects to keep me busy, some of which I can't even tell you about. And if I did, I would have to report you to the Vahki." Though it wasn't obvious, this was Nuju's version of a joke. The only problem with him telling a joke was that he never made it apparent that he was actually trying to say something funny. Nuju titled his head, noting the joke had not quite landed as intended. "And how have you been since we last met? Taken on any more students?" "Not this time," I said as I took a seat in one of my armchairs. "This old Gukko's wings can only stretch so far – and you certainly strained them.” Nuju fought back a grin as he seated himself in an opposing chair. "So what do you do now?" My eyes trailed off over his shoulder as I thought of a response. "I've been poached for one or two projects. Many still value my knowledge of the prophecies, so I haven't run out of interesting work yet. I am, however, finding myself drawn to other ventures.” There was a pause. It was in no way awkward. Many Ko-Matoran paused mid-conversation to collect their thoughts and catalog their feelings. "You're going somewhere, are you not?" Nuju asked. I refused to dignify him with anything less than a perched eyebrow. He was spot on, of course. But he didn’t need to know that. "And what makes you say that?" I asked playfully. Nuju shrugged. "The packed bags were a clue." I chuckled lightly, more to myself for having made that all so obvious for him. "A group of Archivists have asked me to be the guest speaker at the opening of new wing of the Archives." Nuju’s grin disappeared with that news. "Typical. With every expansion, those Onu-Matoran get far more attention than they deserve. One day, I'll make sure they come to understand the importance of our research." I smiled at him with an unexpected warmth. "Well, when you become the next great pioneer of our future, remember to name something after me." Nuju smiled back at my joke. "Consider it done." I peered outside the window and stared at the suns, noting how low they hung in the ginger sky. Deciding now would be the best time to leave, I rose from my armchair and moved to my desk. "Unfortunately, I should get going. I don't want to miss my trip. You know what those attendants are like when you're running late." I glanced at Nuju again. "Or maybe you don't." As I began to make my way towards the door, Nuju rose and extended a fist to me. For the the first time in all our years together, we bumped fists. "All the best with your lecture, Ihu," he began, his voice filled with genuine emotion. Warmth even. In that moment, the line between friend and colleague blurred. "Have a safe trip." "Oh, Nuju," I said merrily with a wide grin. "I'll be back before you know it!" ---- And this concludes my memoirs for the moment. Being a Ko-Matoran, I feel the act of putting chisel to stone both irksome and unnecessarily tedious, so I have devised a better way to amass my thoughts. Indeed, many will question my use of this Memory Crystal for such a purpose, or even brand me as downright selfish for trying to leave some small imprint of myself upon this world in such a manner, but I could not think of a better way. The Memory Crystal's potential goes far beyond that of mere data storage. It could be used to record entire accounts of one's life without the painstaking effort of carving letters onto stone. Whilst my memoirs are currently incomplete - my tutoring of Nuju simply being a smaller chapter of a much larger work - I will properly conclude them once I return from my excursion to Onu-Metru. Until then, I leave you with a small statement I gave to Nuju in Ga-Metru, one that had him thinking for days: Life is a puzzle that cannot easily be solved, the bane of every philosopher's existence. It takes time and patience to piece its intricacies together, and then to understand its meaning in a global vernacular. If these mysteries frustrate or confuse you, look to the skies above and keep an open mind. Your future is not a series of events set in stone; pre-determined by the forces of chance. We may each have a destiny, but even those can be resisted, and in the most extreme cases, averted. Our future is determined not with solid certainty, but with careful consideration of variables. The slightest of miscalculations, shifts in temperature, even impulsive actions can throw the entire natural order out of balance. And such a world is something worth revelling in. Characters *Ihu *Nuju *Several Keerakh *Various unnamed Ko-Matoran *Ehyre Trivia *The banner for the story was designed by Chicken Bond and refined further by Jman98. **The banner itself claims that the story written by "Mersery," the name of Chicken Bond's Self-MOC. This, however, is simply the author's username on BZPower. *''The Mentor's Way'' was Chicken Bond's winning entry into BZPower's S&T Contest #7: Memoirs of the Dead. As one of the winners of the contest, the story was meant to be accepted into the official BIONICLE canon, however this did not eventuate.